"Time to return, I suppose," she said, sounding not at all excited. She glanced at the notes in Alim's hands, and her eyes brightened a bit. "Ah, you took some records, too? We'll have to compare on the train back to Pinnacle."
He wished she would say something like Liam had in regards to potentially continuing some form of amorous relationship, but she didn't, and he was too shy to bring it up himself. As it was, he wasn't certain if she wanted to continue even a platonic relationship with him, and none of them seemed to have any doubts that their triangle of professional animosity was coming to its close. He might not see her again at all once they settled matters at Pinnacle.
Once they were all dressed and had their few possessions gathered, they met their escorts outside the guesthouse. Alim could no longer communicate with Tailor—which was some relief—but Scout was there, radiating sympathy and a longing sense of loss.
Time to leave. Walk more. Scout sounded especially put-off by the second bit. It was still wounded and recovering from its exploration of the ruin.
"May I keep your weave?" Alim asked, feeling it was only right to obtain express permission. "Perhaps my theory about an attunement period is still correct, and we might eventually get it to link over a longer distance. I'd be happy to talk to you about human culture, if you wish."
Gratitude pulsed through the bracelet, laced with doubtful hope. I would like that. But, please, take it off before you—
Alim ducked his head, laughing shakily. "Ah, yes. Sorry about… about that."
I forgive you. Please, keep my weave. I am happy to know you. Alim wished he could hug Scout, but it wasn't sure how the other demons would react, so he only smiled, trusting that Scout could sense his feelings well enough over their bond.
Together with Sentinel and Watchdog, Scout led them through the demon city toward the path that would lead them back to human territory. They were not blindfolded yet, so Alim took in one last look at the tiered levels of the city lining the walls of the massive cavern, the glowing mineral veins heating and lighting the city, the few demon civilians floating about. It crossed Alim's mind that they would have never found this place without Jack's attempt to murder them all to claim the teal demon cadaver as his own, though little good that would do any of their careers if they kept their promise to the Authority. The situation was too ridiculous, and Alim could not hold back a laugh.
The demons didn't react, but both Sylvestra and Liam cast him sidelong glances. "Are you all right, dear?" Sylvestra asked.
It had started out as just a chuckle, but her question launched him into less controlled cackling. "It's just—it's—Jack tried to kill us—to kill us for credit on this demonweave project. And look!" Alim gestured out toward the glittering city. "Eight-hundreds years of demon history and culture, right here! This is Jack's bread and butter, but we're the ones who found it, because he tried to drown us. And we can't tell anyone about it!"
He started laughing again until Sylvestra reached over and patted his arm. "We can tell people about it, just not where it is." Alim only coughed out a few more worn chuckles in reply, and she shook her head. "Liam, how late did you keep him up last night?"
"He woke up early." Sylvestra shook her head again and linked her arm into Alim's to steady him as they continued along.
He had settled down by the time they reached the edge of the city, approaching a wide-mouthed tunnel guarded by a small contingent of demons. The Authority was among them.
"This must be where they blindfold us," Liam said, but when the Authority floated forward, it did not carry blindfolds, but a much larger cloth item.
Folded in its hands was a midnight-black garment, which it lifted up toward the humans. The Authority wishes to speak, Scout said, and Alim reached out to place his palm on the Authority's demonweave garment. Sylvestra and Liam followed suit, and the Authority spoke to them.
You have my trust, strangers, it said. Our kinds have been separated for too long, but if you do not trust those who command you, I will believe they are dangerous. You have been forthright, though, and I hope my people might meet with more humans like you and rebuild relations. Please take this as a token of my hope for future friendship between our kinds. The Authority moved the garment out from under their hands and unfolded it, revealing a simple, open-fronted black robe. Alim abruptly had a much greater appreciation for Tailor's talents seeing the simplistic item woven by the demons' leader, but it was pretty, all the same. And, more than that, it had to have been absurdly powerful.
We can't take this. Although Alim's thought was for himself, Scout turned its head toward him.
Sylvestra apparently disagreed, as she bowed to the Authority and took the robe. "Thank you," she said in the moment when both their hands were upon it, and the Authority released it with an acknowledging bob of its head.
"You can't mean to keep that, can you?" Liam asked, eying the robe with an intensity that suggested more concern or even outright horror than anything else. "You're no mage—it will only make you an unprotected target for the university's or some clothier's greed."
"Well," Sylvestra said, slipping it on over her travel clothes, "perhaps I can take up magic. I will need something to fill my time now that my career with the university is at its end."
"They might not fire you," Alim reminded her. "Me, certainly, but you still had a respectable reputation when you were assigned to this project. They'll be especially hesitant to be rid of you if they find out about this mantle."
Sylvestra shook her head, nose wrinkled in disgusted annoyance. "You two don't get what I mean, do you? On the chance that I'm not ejected from my position, I intend fully to quit once we return." The demons interrupted their conversation to approach with their blindfolds, which were made from normal cloth as the bedsheets had been. Sylvestra continued speaking as Weaver tied on the blindfold. "Years of academic politics has taken a toll as it is, and now we're to the point of attempted murder. I'm rather at my wits' end with it. If cutting myself off from the university is what it takes to pursue actual knowledge, then that is what I must do."
"You'll be cutting yourself off from resources and connections," Liam reminded her.
"And funding," Alim added. Tailor covered his eyes with a blind just before he said it, but he needed neither sight nor telepathic demonweave connections to sense how much passion and rage radiated off of Sylvestra.
"Of course. I never expected it to be easy." Still, Alim heard the doubt lacing her words, and he regretted saying anything. If Sylvestra couldn't believe in her own abilities, what hope did Alim have building a new career after all of this?
The journey was tedious. Alim wasn't sure if sight would have alleviated that, but soreness from the previous day's journey certainly didn't. Only he could commune with any of their escorts at that point, too, and he frequently had to relay warnings or directions from Scout to Sylvestra and Liam. There was little conversation aside from that, and Alim did not attempt to measure the time.
There were a number of turns and slopes both up and down. At times Alim wondered if Scout were leading them in a circle. Perhaps it was, to further obfuscate their location. If so, it worked. Alim was positively dizzy by the time he felt fresh air brush against his skin.
I go no further. The blindfold fell away from Alim's eyes, but he could only see a few inches ahead from the glow of their escorts' demonweave. The tunnel ahead is direct—no branches, no drops, no blocks. Few turns, few slopes. Tunnel mouth is in about a half mile.
"Thank you, Scout," Alim said, turning to it. "It was good to have met you. And… I'm sorry about your friend."
Sorrow seeped through the bracelet, a sensation both heavy and acrid. It matched the calcified expression of Scout's mask. I am glad to be safe. Soon I will return to searching our lost surface ruins. Alim did wonder what it was, exactly, Scout and the teal demon had been hoping to find, but it was too late to ask.
They had to go home and deal with Jack's betrayal. The board's scrutiny. Their own p
ersonal corruption and guilt. And Farrah would kill Alim for worrying her like this.
"Goodbye, Scout," Alim said, returning his attention to the demon. "I hope we can speak again." Warm agreement tingled from the bracelet, and Scout and the other demons turned to float back the way they had come. Liam only allowed Alim a moment to watch them depart before tugging on his sleeve.
"Enough. We have to see if anything is left of our belongings in Freydir, or if Jack has already pawned them off." Alim didn't want to think about that—he wanted to see more of the demon city, to study the moth-dragon, to actually learn something and record it to share with others like the damned scholar he supposedly was—but Liam didn't give him much choice in that, either, pulling him along without waiting for a response.
*~*~*
While Jack had, indeed, checked out of their hotel in Freydir, the innkeeper had not yet gotten around to disposing of the belongings that he had left behind. More than a small relief, since they would have been without money to buy tram tickets home, otherwise. Still, Liam took the opportunity to tear open his own luggage in the hotel lobby, frantically pawing through it to ensure Jack hadn't pilfered anything, making a great scene.
"Were you hiding something in there?" Sylvestra asked, herself hiding the black demonweave mantle in the belly of her tucked-in shirt.
"No, but you can't blame me for not trusting that man. Aside from what we found in that ruin, what else might he walked off with to claim as his own?"
"Yes, how terrible it would be to have someone steal your academic work." The innkeeper had already turned her attention to something else, apparently having seen far more impressive dramas than this playing out in her lobby, but Alim froze at the barb. Perhaps it would be naïve to think that one harrowing adventure and casual fuck would soothe over years of animosity and betrayal, but Alim had not expected them to devolve back into their old antagonism immediately.
Liam glared up at her accusation, and a brief flinch from Sylvestra suggested she realized how counterproductive it was to dredge up the past now. Plenty of time for that after they exposed Jack as an opportunistic murderer.
"Half the day is already gone," Alim said. "We won't get to the station in time for the last tram to Kestler. We'll have to rent for another night. You'll have plenty of time to take inventory in the privacy of a room." Liam scowled at Alim's tone resembling that of a put-upon partner—or maybe not merely resembling, Alim realized.
*~*~*
Once Sylvestra arranged for a new room and they all gathered inside, Liam went right back to tearing open his bags and digging furiously through the contents. Alim squinted down at Liam, the warmth that had been growing for him beginning to ebb away. Returned from the mythical demon city, it seemed they were now back at petty academic politics. As much as he wanted to be above it, suspicion squirmed in his gut. "What, exactly, are you so worried about Jack having taken?"
Liam snarled but didn't lift his gaze to meet Alim's. "Nothing in particular, but I hope you can appreciate that I might be somewhat leery of anything Jack touches at this point." He pulled a folder from one bag and thumbed quickly through its contents before putting it back and grabbing a journal to examine similarly. He shook his head and set it back. "It all appears to be here. Good."
"Truly, there was nothing in there you were hoping to keep hidden?"
"I already said there wasn't. You can look for yourself, if you're so damn—" Liam broke off when he finally lifted his head, his glare dissipating like a drop of water on a hot stove. He flinched, as though he had forgotten to whom he spoke. "You don't trust me."
Alim glanced helplessly toward Sylvestra, who sat on the edge of one of the room's two beds and stared into space. She had already removed the demon mantle from where she had tucked it away, and it sat folded on her lap as unnoticed as an ordinary quilt. She was off somewhere else, disconnected from magic and politics and Jack's betrayal—or maybe entirely absorbed in it. Either way, she was not present enough to support Alim with snide remarks.
"You were quick to revert to territorialism and secrets," Alim said, "even when you supposedly don't have any to hide. It's just so… Pinnacle."
Liam stood, his expression now blank. "Well, we are going back."
Alim tried to smile, but he was sure it came out flat. "You are, friend. I am a washed up embarrassment who couldn't have the decency to die quietly and out of sight. And Mistress Geruz has made her intentions quite clear."
"You don't know what the board might do. Jack wronged us, and you're both valuable assets to the university. However twisted their politics might be, we can't be sure that the university would actually abandon Sylvestra or I, and either of us can vouch on your behalf." He glanced toward Sylvestra, but she didn't move. "We'll have a mess to clean up when we return, certainly, but it's nothing to flounce out over entirely."
That got her attention. Setting the mantle aside, Sylvestra stood and stepped up to face Liam. The calm with which she did so unnerved Alim. "You know, I didn't hire scavengers like Alim, back when I obtained that original cadaver. I knew what I wanted, I knew there would be dangers, so I hired mercenaries. You know, the sort with swords. I didn't ask them how or where they 'found' the specimen they brought back, but I suspect it's unlikely that they just happened upon a dead demon as we did yesterday. And this was before I was promoted to Head Researcher—how do you supposed I paid them?" She glanced side-eyed at Alim. "I don't know a damn researcher in the entire department who didn't do what you did. People pay big money to hear what they want to hear, and the only way to climb the hierarchy at Pinnacle is to self-fund more ambitious projects. The entire institution essentially mandates corruption, and now our peers are going so far as to attempt to murder their competition."
"Kids these days," Alim said, but she ignored the joke.
"My options from this point forward are to conform to this new professional standard or resign myself to being smothered in my sleep by some career-orientated teacher's assistant. This isn't about the board or what they do with Jack or any of us. I'm cutting my losses now, and the only reason I'm going back is to gather my earthly belongings."
Liam kept pushing back, but the assertiveness of his baritone growl began to waver. "You can't allow one drastic experience to—"
"It's not one experience, Liam. You personally saw to that, and the fact that I saved your life and slept with you does not erase that from my memory. I am done with Pinnacle, and I will be taking what little I got out of this project and starting a new life as a private researcher." Liam's eyes cast toward the glittering mantle laid out on her bed, a tint of envy to the look. "Now if you're quite finished telling me how to live my life, I suggest we all get some sleep."
Sighing, Liam closed his eyes. "A sound suggestion." Apparently committed to ending the argument, he began stripping down to his underclothes to sleep without further commentary. Sylvestra and Alim did the same, but once Alim was changed into his sleeping shirt, the other two had already claimed beds—Liam settled into one, Sylvestra in the other.
Alim hesitated, wondering if it might be better for him to sleep on the floor. It had been Liam who had shown a stronger desire for Alim's affection the night before, but Alim didn't care for the shift in his attitude now that they were back in human territory.
"With me, dear," Sylvestra said when she noticed his stalling. "We take up quite a bit less room than Liam—I'm sure you'd both feel more crowded together." Liam, who had already laid his head on his pillow, glanced over at Alim but didn't say anything. Alim couldn't read his reaction and was relieved that Sylvestra had come up with a decent excuse for him not to sleep in Liam's bed, so he went to join her without argument. Even then, he was still uncertain about his status with Sylvestra, so he refrained from touching her as he crawled in.
Liam watched him until he was entirely settled in next to Sylvestra, and he rolled back over to face away from them. Next to Alim, Sylvestra curled up to sleep facing him, but her eyes were closed as her hair
curtained over her face. He wanted to wrap his arms around her again, to kiss her and not face the reality of the next day. But she and Liam were right about returning to clean up Jack's mess, so Alim kept to himself and closed his eyes. It was only a small comfort that sleep came so easily to him that night.
*~*~*
When Alim awoke the next morning, Liam was gone.
Sylvestra was already awake and had obtained a breakfast platter from the innkeeper, and she was busy gathering up her luggage when Alim groggily sat up in bed. She announced that Liam had taken off without them sometime in the night or early morning, sounding entirely unsurprised, and then offered Alim a cup of tea.
Alim didn't address the tea. "He left?"
"Yes, dear."
"Why?"
"To beat us back to Pinnacle, I assume. I won't pretend to know for what. Are you sure you don't want any tea?" Alim scrambled out of bed, his mind going to the demonweave mantle. Sylvestra, it seemed, already knew his thoughts. "It's still here. He didn't take it."
That calmed Alim's panic but only replaced it with confusion. "Then why not wait for us?"
"Alim." Sylvestra set aside her bag, neatly repacked and ready for departure. She stepped up to him and took his hands. "Liam clearly still has some attachment to his identity as a Pinnacle scholar, and he does not care for me abandoning mine. Whatever he is doing, I don't doubt it's to control the narrative of his career—and if you and I have no hopes of continuing at the university, then we've ceased to be relevant to that narrative. We were just slowing him down."
Alim shook his head. "By what? Two hours?"
A Study of Fiber and Demons Page 12